Bourses trim most gains in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks trimmed most of their gains in late afternoon session. Currently, markets traded near neutral lines. Weakness in select Energy and Oil & Gas shares dragged key gauges lower, while buying in Healthcare and metal stocks helped markets to trade near neutral lines. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were also trading with limited gains. Sector wise, telecom sector remained in focused, as Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the government is likely to hold 5G spectrum auction in early June. Further, he said that the roll out of 5G services in the country will begin by August-September. He mentioned that that the Department of Telecom is working as per expected timeline and the process is on to resolve industry concerns around spectrum pricing.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher tracking a broadly positive finish on Wall Street overnight, driven by technology stocks, which mirrored their peers on Nasdaq, reacting to upbeat earnings from top companies. European markets were trading higher amidst the recent positive earnings updates, keeping the markets in high spirits on the last trading day of the month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57596.26, up by 75.20 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 57544.48 and 57975.48. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.07%, while Small cap index was down by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.49%, Metal up by 0.45%, FMCG up by 0.15%, Basic Materials up by 0.02% and Auto was up by 0.01%, while PSU down by 1.06%, Oil & Gas down by 1.06%, Energy down by 1.02%, Capital Goods down by 0.70% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.61% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.16%, Tata Steel up by 1.75%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.73%, HDFC Bank up by 1.61% and Sun Pharma up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 6.06%, Power Grid Corp down by 2.52%, Wipro down by 2.03%, Titan Company down by 1.20% and SBI down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, calling for strengthening of ethics and corporate governance norms in startups, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has urged startups to incorporate and list in India and not move to tax havens.

Goyal stressed that instances of fudging revenues, data fraud, tax evasions and other malpractices have to be curbed at an early stage or it would kill the entrepreneurial spirit of young startups and have a very damaging effects to the startup ecosystem. He called for more transparency and the setting up of better standards and benchmarks and more self-regulation in the starup ecosystem.

The Minister said that Venture Capitalists must also promote and protect Intellectual Property created by young entrepreneurs, provide expertise to scale-up and explore greater capital infusion. He expressed hope that Indian Intellectual Property would benefit the world but asked that India be the primary beneficiary these innovations.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17272.45, up by 27.40 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 17240.20 and 17377.65. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.85%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.17%, Tata Motors up by 2.03%, Tata Steel up by 1.81% and Tata Consumer up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 6.03%, Coal India down by 2.58%, Power Grid down by 2.48%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.45% and Wipro down by 2.06% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Hang Seng increased 813.22 points or 4.01% to 21,089.39, Nikkei 225 surged 461.27 points or 1.75% to 26,847.90, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 172.80 points or 1.05% to 16,592.18, Shanghai Composite gained 71.58 points or 2.41% to 3,047.06, Straits Times advanced 42.76 points or 1.28% to 3,377.85, Jakarta Composite soared 32.15 points or 0.45% to 7,228.91 and KOSPI was up by 27.56 points or 1.03% to 2,695.05.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 26.94 points or 0.36% to 7,536.13, France’s CAC increased 82.27 points or 1.26% to 6,590.41 and Germany’s DAX was up by 178.86 points or 1.28% to 14,158.70.